Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Crime Watch

Today I found out that one of my friends had been mugged over the weekend. Even though he was knocked unconscious, needed stitches, and lost his watch, everyone is grateful that he was not injured more seriously. I felt so angry when I heard the story too. He is also one of the nicest guys I know at law school and he looked so beat-up when I saw him today. All for a watch (he doesn't carry a wallet when he goes out and his friends found his blackberry in a bush nearby).

When people hear these stories, the first question always seems to be where it happened. And while it did happen in Adams Morgan, one of the rowdier places in DC, it really does happen everywhere inside and outside of DC. In the past month, two other males at my school have been mugged in separate incidents walking home by themselves, both in nicer parts of town.

I share this not to scare my parents (I promise to be safe!), but as a reminder to friends to take care of themselves--males and females. While I have noticed that most of my female friends will never go anywhere late by themselves or will take cabs directly to and from places, males often go solo thinking they can be fine on their own. But there really is something to that safety in numbers thing no matter what your gender.